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By ZACHERY PER
A GROUP of nine working women in Goroka yesterday donned black dresses
to support Community Development Minister Dame Carol Kidu’s petition to
Parliament to outlaw violence against women and children.
Women and children rights advocate Miriam Layton and Ruth Paliau had
mobilised the women during a lunch break to share their experiences and
also that of their children of being abused by their husbands and
fathers.
“We support our only female Parliamentarian Dame Carol Kidu in her
petition to Parliament to look into the violence against women,” they
said, adding that the cry of women and children had been expressed in
different forms through drama, writings, role-play and audio-visual
forms.
“But there is a greater need for the awareness among communities to take
on the problem.
“What we are doing now is to save the future for our daughters and
women, because the female folks have great respect for the men folks,”
Ms Paliau said.
Mrs Layton said PNG was now having outsiders – the Australian rugby
league players – come to educate Papua New Guineans on the issue of
violence against women and children.
She said this reflected that we do not know how to look after our own
women.
“There were great respect for women during our ancestral days but
through the years of development, this faded away,” Mrs Layton said.
She said it was about time politicians and leaders come down from their
totem poles and help the women.
Mrs Layton said most of the women in the country had voted for the
current parliamentarians.
She added that they should now refocus their vision to back the women to
discourage violence against them and their children.
 
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